Various Artists

The Red Bird Story, Vol. 1

AllMusic Review
by Steve Leggett

After folding their Spark Records label in 1955 and then working with Atlantic Records until 1961, and then United Artists until 1963, the songwriting and production team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller started Red Bird Records and its subsidiaries Blue Cat, Tiger, and Daisy Records in 1964. The duo had tremendous success with the undertaking, placing 11 of the first 30 singles Red Bird issued on the pop charts, many of them, like the Dixie-Cups' “Chapel of Love” and the Shangri-Las' “Leader of the Pack,” by girl groups, and the label is often associated with the girl group pop genre. But the Red Bird roster was deeper and more diverse than that, as this generous two-disc, 60-track set shows. The various girl group hits are here, as well as lesser-known sides by the Tradewinds (“New York’s a Lonely Town”) and Tiny Tim (“April Showers”), among others. Leiber & Stoller sold off the label and its associate imprints in 1966 to concentrate on writing and producing.